“Wait, you don’t get out until late June? And you don’t start until late September? Why is your school so weird?” With courses squeezed into 10-week time periods and a schedule that forces you to say goodbye to hanging with your home friends, students at schools on the quarter system have an unusual college experience. For those of you who watched all of your semester-school peers go off to college freshman year while you shamelessly stalked their social media for the month of September, here are 16 things you’ll relate to:
1. You’ve sat at home alone while everyone else is at school…
2. …and watched everyone get out for summer vacation a month early.
3. Speaking of, you’ve struggled to find a summer internship.
4. You know the horror that is week 5…
5. …and week 9…
6. …really, you’re always in midterm season.
7. Your friends from other schools think you have it easy, since you only take four classes at a time.
8. You feel like you’re always buying new books and returning old ones.
9. You spend less time in the classes you love…
10. …but also in the classes you hate.
11. You can read hundreds of pages in one sitting.
12. A second major? No big deal.
13. Spring break is actually a break.
14. You hardly ever know exactly how you are doing in a course until it’s over.
15. You’re an expert at taking finals, since you have them three times a year.
16. But you’re also an expert at making the most of syllabus week.
See you in late September!